Valentin Iglinskiy wins Tour of Turkey stage two bunch sprint

Valentin Iglinkskiy (Astana) took his first victory of the season in the second stage of the Presidential Tour of Turkey between Kusadasi and Turgutreis. The Kazakh, who is the younger brother of the more famous Maxim Iglinskiy, outsprinted the peloton at the end of the 181km stage along the country’s western coast. Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) finished in second place, with Elia Favilli (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli) in third.

“It’s very emotional to win here at the Tour of Turkey,” said Iglinskiy after his victory. “Something fantastic happened at the finish today. I was following Petacchi and my Astana team helped me a lot for that.

“This is very good for me,” he added. “It’s a very big success. I’ve believed in my strength. I thought it was possible to get this win but, without my team, I’m not a good sprinter. Today I chose the correct position, yesterday, I didn’t. From now on, I want to go step by step and build my future in the big classics and the Grand Tours.

“To become a champion is my big dream.”

In the first frenetic first 65km, with crosswinds splitting the peloton into a number of pieces and causing a number of crashes, there were several attempted breakaways. Finally though Timon Seubert (NetApp), Juan Villegas (Colombia es Pasion-Cafe de Colombia), José Luis Roldan (Andalucia-Caja Granada) and Gabor Kasa (Manisaspor) escaped.

The four riders managed to build a maximum lead of five minutes at the 75km point, but the top sprinters’ teams were not going to allow them to stay away to the finish and the lead dropped steadily throughout the rest of the stage. With 45km to go it had been cut to 2’50”, which quickly dropped to 1’40” in the next five kilometres.

With the quartet’s capture seemingly inevitable, Roldan decided to see if he could trick the sprinters and headed off alone. He managed to maintain his advantage over the peloton, still leading by 1’37” with 21km to go, but the four riders all came back together as the race passed through Bodrum.

Kasa was the next to go but, with Roldan dropping back exhausted to the peloton, the other two joined him; with 15km to go they still led by more than a minute, but this had been slashed to just 24 seconds at the 10km banner.

Now inside the final 10km he counterattacks from the peloton began; the fist rider to try his luck was Luca Barla (Androni Giocattoli), who caught and passed the three fugitives on a climb, as they were caught.

Barla was only able to get a few seconds clear before being pulled back; it was now the turn of Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), but he was to have no better luck. On effect of the flurry of attacks though was that the increased pace of the peloton saw race leader, and stage one winner Andrea Guardini dropped on a climb.

The Colnago-CSF Inox and Lampre-ISD teams took control in the final few kilometres, for Manuel Belletti and Petacchi respectively but on the slightly downhill finishing straight, and into a slight headwind, it was the Astana sprinter who came out on top.

Mirac Kal (Konya-Torku Seker Spor-Vivelo) made history, taking the best ever result for a Turkish rider in the Turkish since it took on its higher status in 2008, with eighth.

Time bonuses on the line, and the fact that Guardini lost more than four minutes, means that Iglinskiy also takes over the race lead.